Michael Whitlock will talk about his work on pleiotropy and genetic covariance:
The evolution of pleiotropy and genetic covariance through individual selection
ABSTRACT: The amount of genetic covariance between traits and the degree of pleiotropy in developmental systems can be strongly affected by correlated patterns of individual selection on multiple traits. Several processes have been investigated that show evolution of pleiotropy and genetic covariance in response to individual selection; in this talk I’ll discuss three modes of such evolution. These three scenarios are: spatial heterogeneity in optima of multiple traits coupled with limited dispersal; evolution of phenotypic plasticity with correlated temporal heterogeneity of trait optima; and multigenerational changes in trait optima that are correlated among traits. In each case, perhaps surprisingly, there is more genetic variation in multivariate dimensions of trait space most strongly correlated with the direction of selection. In the latter two models, we show that the developmental system evolves to generate new mutational variation more strongly along the dimensions of past correlated selection. Genetic correlation and pleiotropy can evolve by individual selection in ways that are likely to increase the future response to selection.